Kristi Gold - Hotel Marchand 04 (7 page)

He shifted toward her and took her hand, thankful she didn’t pull away. At least not yet. “Okay, if you want to know what really happened, then I’m going to tell you.”

R
ENEE BRACED
for the confession, worried that she might not like what she was about to hear. Worried that he might tell her there had been another woman in his life, that he had deceived her from the beginning. She considered stopping him before he continued, but the uncertainty was much worse than knowing the truth. She likened it to watching a suspenseful scene in a movie—you might not want to see what happened next, yet you couldn’t quite turn away.

She surrendered to the inevitable, despite the consequences. “Go ahead. I’m listening.”

Only the low hum of the car’s engine disrupted the stark silence. For a moment Renee thought Pete had reconsidered, until he turned his gaze to her, revealing a distinct look of pain. “A few hours after I left your place, I got a frantic phone call from my sister, so I flew to Phoenix, where she was living at the time. As it turned out, she needed my help, and she had no one else but me. Our mother died five years before Adam was born, our dad when I was fifteen and Trish was nine. Adam was a little over a year old, so I helped her take care of him until she got everything together again. And that lasted until a year ago.”

Renee had sensed his reasons had been personal, but she hadn’t seriously considered they had to do with Adam. Yet that made perfect sense. Still, she had questions. “You weren’t able to move her to L.A. or hire someone to help with Adam’s care?”

He tugged at his collar. “She still wasn’t over Sean’s death and more upheaval was the last thing she needed right then. It was a complicated situation, Renee.”

Renee felt as though some particulars were missing, details that he’d glossed over. Yet she didn’t want to push him because she understood the need for privacy, and the lack thereof when confronted with a very public life. She also recognized that he truly didn’t owe her any more information than he’d already given her, even if it had come too late. “Why didn’t you tell me all this three years ago?”

“Like I’ve said, because of the legal issues. I couldn’t say anything to anyone at the studio, particularly not you.”

That stung almost as badly as not hearing from him after their night together. “Did you think I was going to broadcast it to the studio? Or maybe you thought I was so heartless that I wouldn’t understand.”

“It was business, Renee. You said that yourself.”

“I know, but you could have called after the business was settled. I deserved that much.”

He released a rough sigh. “You’re right, but I was in a bad place in my life back then, trying to balance work and supporting Trish and Adam. I couldn’t have maintained a personal relationship with anyone, even if that’s what I’d wanted.”

Had he really wanted a serious relationship with her? She was too afraid to believe. Too jaded to hope. Still too hurt to forgive him, at least not yet. “But you went to work on another film a year after you broke the contract.”

“Yeah, I did. You’d already replaced me by then and I needed to keep working. We both know that it doesn’t take long to be forgotten in this business.”

She knew that all too well. She doubted anyone would remember her, even though she’d only been gone from the Hollywood scene for less than a year. But Pete had a stellar track record lined with industry honors too numerous to mention. “You should have asked the executive producers for a temporary leave. I would have stood behind you.”

“I considered that, but I couldn’t give you or the powers that be a definite time frame. And investors get nervous when schedules are changed.”

Most of what Pete had told her made sense, but the thought that he hadn’t felt he could trust her still hurt. “I take it your sister is doing okay now.”

“Yeah, thank God. She’s happy and settled.” He looked at her with a sincerity she’d never before witnessed. “Even though it was tough going, I wouldn’t take back the time I spent with Adam.”

Although she still had much to consider, Renee understood why Pete had severed his ties with her, or at least why he hadn’t been able to finish the movie. And she had to admit that her respect for him had risen after learning he’d taken on the task of caring for his nephew. But was it enough to forgive and forget?

She didn’t want the evening to end yet, if only so she could learn more. Be with him again, if only for a while, and that probably made her a fool. He would be gone from her life in a matter of days, maybe for good, and if she wasn’t careful, he’d walk away with all of her heart this time. But only if she let him that close again, and that was something she couldn’t afford to do.

“We’re almost there,” Luc said over the intercom, startling Renee. “Do you want me to pull around back?”

Renee considered the usual Saturday night mania in the hotel bar, and decided that wouldn’t be conducive to conversation. But she didn’t dare take Pete up on his offer to have the drink in his room.

After formulating another plan, she pressed the intercom button. “Mr. Traynor and I would like to have a nightcap, Luc. Could you suggest a club off the beaten path?”

“Ms. Carlyle’s singing tonight at the hotel. Are you sure you don’t want to hear her?”

“Holly Carlyle’s a part-time singer,” Renee explained to Pete. “She’s very popular.”

“I take it she draws a crowd,” he said.

“A very large crowd.”

Pete shook his head. “I’d rather avoid a crowd tonight.”

There would be safety in numbers, Renee thought, but she, too, would prefer quiet. She pressed the button again and told Luc, “We’d rather find someplace a bit less crowded.”

After a brief silence, Luc answered, “I know a place off Canal Street. It usually caters to locals, so you won’t find much of a crowd there. They have a good jazz quartet.”

“That sounds fine, Luc. Take us there.”

T
HE CLUB WAS ONLY
slightly larger than the Hotel Marchand’s lobby, dark and hazy and filled with the soft sounds of jazz. Several tables lined the walls, containing mostly couples who had opted to escape the Quarter’s chaos in exchange for a slower tempo. The sultry ambience exemplified yet another of the city’s many facets.

Pete clasped her arm and guided her to a table in the corner farthest away from the door and the small dance floor. He pulled out her chair then took his own across from her. As she focused on a man and woman nearby, their heads bent together, sharing an occasional kiss, she recalled this was how it had all begun with her and Pete, intimate meetings in out-of-the way places. At first they’d maintained a professional relationship, until he’d asked her to dinner one night. After that, they’d found excuses to meet, only the two of them. Talk of the movie had turned to conversations about their goals, their habits, their drive to be the best in their field. The line between professional and personnel had begun to blur little by little with their growing intimacy. And that had been the beginning of the end of their control, and the beginning of the end of them, period.

“Renee?”

She forced herself out of the recollections, unaware that he’d been speaking to her. “I’m sorry. I guess I was daydreaming.”

He shrugged out of his jacket and draped it on the chair next to him. “I noticed. What were you thinking about?”

She couldn’t tell him. Couldn’t let on that her memories were clouded with him. Otherwise, he might believe she wanted a repeat performance. She didn’t want that. Or did she? “I was thinking I didn’t have dinner. Are you hungry?”

“I could probably have something to eat.” He nodded toward a blackboard menu hanging on the opposite wall. “Says there they have the best cheeseburgers in town.”

Renee shrugged. “A cheeseburger sounds fine. I can worry about my cholesterol tomorrow.”

A friendly waitress with a winning smile arrived at the table and took their order. Renee opted to drink a soda to keep her wits about her, while Pete requested a beer. When the meal arrived, they slipped into easy conversation, mainly about Adam. To Renee, Pete sounded every bit like the proud papa, and she found that remarkable. She never would have viewed him as the paternal sort. But then, she’d only scratched the surface of the man behind the director, believing she’d known him well, recognizing now she still had a lot to learn, realizing she probably wouldn’t have the chance for much more discovery.

When she smiled, he frowned. “What’s so funny?”

She pushed aside the red plastic basket containing the remains of her burger and fries. “I’m just having a difficult time imagining you changing Adam’s diapers and feeding him strained peas.”

“It took me a while to get all that down, but I don’t think he suffered too much damage.” He laughed. “Trish wasn’t too thrilled that his first words were ‘cut’ and ‘roll ’em.’”

“I imagine she would have preferred he’d said ‘mama’ first.”

Renee noted another flash of sadness in his eyes, but he quickly covered it with a smile. “You know what I want to do now?”

“I’m almost afraid to ask.” And she was, for fear that she wouldn’t be strong enough to deny him anything.

“I want to dance with you.”

That was definitely a first. “I didn’t realize you could dance.”

“I’m no Fred Astaire, but I can hold my own as long as it’s a slow dance.”

A slow dance meant having his arms around her. Being up close and very personal. Grasping for an excuse to turn down the offer, Renee glanced to her left to find the miniscule dance floor fortunately crowded. “Looks like a traffic jam to me.”

Pete downed his beer, pushed away from the table and stood. “We’ll find a spot away from the crowd.”

When he held out his hand, Renee considered issuing a protest. Instead, she said, “Let me go to the ladies’ room first, then I’ll give you my answer.”

He pulled his cell phone from his pocket. “And while you’re doing that, I’ll check on Adam.”

“Good idea.” And it was. If Adam happened to be missing his uncle, then that could mean cutting the evening short, before she did something she might regret.

Renee grabbed her purse from the chair beside her and worked her way through the tables, heading for the neon green sign that pointed the way to her refuge. When she entered the restroom and fortunately found it deserted, she snatched a paper towel from the metal holder, wet it and dabbed it over her forehead.

Things were progressing too fast and furious. She needed to pull back, stay resolute, even if she now had some understanding of why he’d left her high and dry. She needed to remember that once he was finished scouting locations, he would leave New Orleans. Leave her again. Could she continue down the inevitable path and land back in his arms, and possibly his bed, without losing herself to him completely? But with Adam in the picture, she highly doubted they would have an opportunity to be truly alone. Adam could be her saving grace.

After giving herself a quick mental pep talk, she left the room feeling much stronger. Yet her tenacity began to tumble when she caught sight of Pete sitting back in his chair, his hand wrapped around the beer, one thumb slowly passing up and down the label, reminding her of his touch.

As she moved forward, Renee felt as if she walked through a waking dream, or right into a made-for-television melodrama. There he was, the handsome hero seated at the table, a man of substance beneath the pretty playboy exterior. A man who had flowed in and out of her thoughts for years, as steady as the Pacific tide. A man who had come back into her life, expecting to take up where they’d left off. And what did that make her? The foolhardy, conflicted woman engaged in a serious battle to resist him, one that she was losing.

“Hey, sweetheart. Where are you going?” came from the bar to her left.

Enter sleazebag with lovin’ on his mind. Renee couldn’t have scripted the scene any better.

She raised her gaze from the beefy hand now gripping her arm to the face sporting a shaggy handlebar mustache that framed a seedy grin. She took a quick glance at Pete, who shoved the chair back and stood, ready to ride in like a knight in shining tuxedo. Well, she didn’t need a man to rescue her. She never had.

She sent Pete a quelling look, and through a fair-maiden smile and gritted teeth, she told the barfly, “Look, I’ve had a really difficult week at work. If you don’t unhand me, then I will use a vital part of your anatomy as a stress ball.”

Appearing momentarily shocked, he released his grasp on her and raised both hands, as if she’d aimed a gun at his forehead. “No problem. I can take a hint.”

She started to suggest he not take a bath in cheap cologne, but decided to leave him be and return to the man who had this one beat by a mile. Several miles, in fact.

When she reached the table, Pete was still standing. “Are you okay?” He looked and sounded overly concerned.

“Of course I’m okay. I’m used to handling his kind. I seem to attract them.”

“What did you say to him?”

She shrugged and hung her purse over the adjacent chair. “I told him I was with you.”

“No, you didn’t.”

He knew her too well. “All right. I threatened bodily harm, in a very polite way, of course.”

He let go a laugh. “Remind me not to piss you off.”

“You already have, remember?” When she saw his amusement fade into a frown, she added, “Is Adam okay?”

“He’s fine. According to your mother, he and Daisy Rose are having a great time together. Right now they’re watching videos. She told us not to even consider coming home early because they’ll both be disappointed.”

So much for cutting the evening short. She might as well make the best of it. “Are you ready for that dance now?’

He relaxed and took her hand into his. “Thought you’d never ask.”

After Pete guided her to one corner of the dance floor and pulled her against him, Renee’s heart beat an erratic rhythm that contrasted with the steady cadence of the music. She’d stupidly expected some awkwardness, maybe even hoped for it, something to keep her feet on the floor and her head out of the clouds. Yet she experienced no real reticence, no urge to bolt. In fact, having him so close felt as natural as being awakened in the morning by the sound of a ship’s horn coming from the Mississippi. Then again, she’d been here before, in his embrace, savoring his strength, his scent, his warmth.